800 miles of prairie. One way.
Living in Seattle, it is hard to imagine covering 800 miles one way with nothing other than endless grass to see. Tons of tiny lakes, a few trees, but they were probably added by humans, as in the natural state it is treeless for the most part. Beautiful to see the vastness and emptiness, but hard to imagine in the winter. The wind is endless and ceaseless.
After Roosevelt National Park, I overnighted in Watford City. This seems to be ground zero for the Balkan oil fields. I have never seen so many pick up trucks! The hotel was loading up workers with giant duffle bags into buses to go off to some work site. Burly guys, just like you would expect for working oil fields, I guess. I also saw many depressing temporary housing enclaves, just sitting in weird areas outside of town. They reminded me of the “township” towns you see outside of South African cities. So, clearly the money is good, but the lifestyle has to be really depressing at times.
So, I took off to the north, aiming for Saskatchewan. Stopping for some photos and for a speeding ticket. Pretty good state to do it in if you want one. 10 miles over the limit = $20.00 and no points. Pretty much the same as a parking ticket in ND I guess.
Two days, 800 miles mostly 2 lane, some on gravel, and I got to Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Arriving to snowy rain and white trees everywhere!
A storage lot of temporary houses and front step assemblies I guess to the right?
Oil well along the road
Abandoned farm house far northern North Dakota.
The stove looks ready, don’t you think? Endless prairie behind it.
The refer may need some work?
hey, at least they had nice furniture!
My bumper after 1,400 miles of prairie. See the bug on the far left? He was number 5,000,000. He will get an award, but I am afraid it will have to be posthumounsly.
At the end of the 800 miles of one way prairie, here we are at one of the fine hotels in the world.
Lake Louise from my room. I did like the prairie, but this is pretty good too!